The invention relates to a shoe or boot with a shell made of elastomeric material, in particular synthetic plastics material, and more particularly, a hiking boot, in which the upper part of the shell in the area of the roots of the toes is corrugated like a bellows, with ridges and furrows extending transversely to the longitudinal direction, each ridge on the outside lying opposite a furrow on the inside and each furrow on the outside lying opposite a ridge on the inside. Shells of synthetic plastics material which are fairly thick offer considerably resistance against bending, thus making walking difficult. If the shell is very thin, on the other hand, its resistance to pressure from outside is low, and the show becomes unsightly.
In the German published patent application No. 2,409,907, a sports shoe has already been disclosed which has a row of pleats in the area of the instep to improve the flexibility of the shoe. In this prior art construction, however, the kinematics of the rolling movement during walking or running has not been taken into consideration sufficiently to enable these prior art features to also be employed effectively with stiff ski boot shells or stiff climbing boot shells.